MONOPOLIES IN THE TRANSVAAL AND THE NETHERLANDS RAILWAY COMPANY.[16]


1.--_Article XIV. and the Monopolies._

The avowed taxes are far from representing the whole of the burden laid
upon the Uitlanders by the Government of Pretoria.

The Convention of 1881 guaranteed freedom of commerce; nevertheless,
from 1882 onwards "the triumvirate who ruled the country," says Mr.
FitzPatrick (_The Transvaal from Within_), "granted numbers of
concessions, ostensibly for the purpose of opening up industries. The
real reasons are generally considered to have been personal." In 1884,
Article XIV. renewed the guarantee of freedom of commerce; the Volksraad
itself one day passed a resolution condemning monopolies in principle:
and in December 1895 the President granted a monopoly for the
importation of products, under the guise of a government agency with a
commission to the agent!

One of the first monopolies established was for the manufacture of
spirits. The quality of liquor it supplies to the natives is atrocious.
To drunkenness is attributed a loss of 15 per cent. on the labour of
90,000 natives whose pay and food are equivalent to £40 per head, a loss
therefore of £550,000 a year.

[Footnote 16: _Le Siècle_, April 5th, 1900.]


2.--_The Dynamite Monopoly._